The invention relates to a commonplace object with an outer surface that encircles the commonplace object and with at least one cylindrical section of the surface, a data bit sequence being written along at least one track on the cylindrical section.
Commonplace objects of this type can be containers or packs. Containers considered are foodstuffs containers such as bottles or jars. In addition, containers can also be reagent bottles or preservation containers for blood samples. Packs considered are packs for cylindrical objects, such as consumer goods.
Many of the commonplace objects mentioned previously need codes which define the content, the intended use and/or the sales price. For this purpose, use is generally made of labels, which either bear directly legible information or information in machine-readable form such as encrypted in a bar code. In this case, the amount of information is limited by the restricted area available.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,362,995 discloses a commonplace object to which a label is stuck which has various items of optically readable information. This information also includes tracks with one or more data bit sequences. In this case, the information is printed on the material of the label, for example paper, in a conventional manner.